Single Engine Loss of Power On Takeoff – At Night
November 18, 1990.
I was regularly going back and forth to Ft. Myers for a family property project on Sanibel Island. This night I was finished with my work for the week and decided to fly back to Orlando at night. I filed IFR so I would get “watched over” by ATC. I was flying Cessna 172 N75885 which was NOT my favorite airplane. Most of my “excitement” happened in this one.
I was a little concerned because one of the mags had a slightly higher drop than the other (the lower mag of course.) I did what I was taught to do and ran it up to 2200 rpm (on both mags) and leaned the mixture until the engine ran smoothly. It took a few minutes but cleared up eventually.
My clearance from KFMY (Page Field) was to fly runway heading to 2000 feet. I departed and was climbing out at 75KIAS when at about 500 feet I suddenly lost a lot of power. I can’t even tell you what RPM I was getting but it was probably about 1500. I immediately whipped the plane in to a 45 degree left bank to return to the airport.
“885 FLY RUNWAY HEADING!” Tower screamed at me.
“I’ve lost power, I’m returning to the airport.” I replied.
“Oh! Well in that case cleared to land any runway.” “Thank you” and then radio silence. We were both watching to see what happened.
The headwind was light, only 7 kts or so but wow what a difference. I was actually too high. I needed to get down fast! I went full flaps and immediately did a full forward slip. Cessna advises against this but it’s not a “rule”.
I was still high and fast. My plan was get it on the ground, throw the flaps up and let the brakes do their job. I touched down three quarters of the way down runway 23 at 70 kts and the brakes just skipped. The flaps were still retracting. Finally I slowed down enough to have effective braking. I went right to the end of the overrun at the end of runway 23. I turned and started heading back to the taxiway. The engine was still running but pushing the throttle in only made it run rough.
“Nice Landing!” Tower finally spoke. “Can you taxi?”
“Yes I still have some power. It wasn’t a complete failure.”
“OK Taxi to the ramp with me. What are your intentions?” He asked …
“I’m going to park this thing, go get some sleep and have a mechanic look at it in daylight!”
“Good idea! Approved as requested :)”
What Was It?
The next morning my local mechanic tried to clear it out with full power run ups. No luck. He finally took the cowling off and removed all 8 spark plugs. The lower ones (of course) were all badly fouled and 2 couldn’t even be cleaned. We replaced all four any way.
I flew it back uneventfully, but I heard every single noise that engine made all the way home.
Was This The Impossible Turn?
The safety world has been buzzing a lot lately about something called “The Impossible Turn”. The maneuver is described as doing a complete 180 (actually slightly more) after experiencing an engine failure shortly after takeoff.
The conversation is “spirited” with many claiming it should never be done and others, like myself, who say “it depends on the aircraft and circumstances”.
This event was not a complete power failure so it may not be a good benchmark but I believe a lightly loaded C-172 along with a favorable headwind will do it, as long as you bank 45 degrees immediately. I have demonstrated it in the sim with several aircraft types but it depends a lot on weight and favorable winds.
So was this an example of The Impossible Turn? I’ll say … “Maybe????”
